During a ceremony held on Tuesday, the Iranian Navy relaunched one of its Kilo class submarines, named Tareq, after repairing its systems with domestically manufactured replacement parts.

In a project which took about 1,620,000 man-hours, Navy personnel overhauled the Taregh submarine, replacing 18,000 components including radar-evading cover, engine parts, propellers and radars.

Before undergoing the thorough overhaul, Tareq had taken part in the Velayat-90 naval war games, which were held in December 2011, and successfully fired electrically propelled torpedoes for the first time.

In the ceremony, Rear Admiral Abbas Zamini, who was in charge of the project, said that Iran has attained self-sufficiency in repairing the most complicated submarines.

He also said that dedicated Navy personnel have made great efforts to complete the project to overhaul the Kilo class submarine after going through the stages of dismantling, troubleshooting, repairing, installing systems and equipment, and testing.

In addition, he said that the project was one of the most important achievements of the country's defense industries after designing and manufacturing the Jamaran destroyer.

The relaunch of Tareq will improve the country's military deterrence capability and national might, he added.

In an address to the ceremony, the commander of the Iranian Navy said that the Tareq submarine is ready to go on missions in international waters.

Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said repairing Tareq was a great achievement because only a handful of countries in the world are capable of overhauling submarines.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Navy commander announced that the projects to build destroyers of the Jamaran class and missile-launching vessels of the Paykan class are well underway.